WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 126: Malevolent Site - 10

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Cardinal Rosinald hurriedly dispatched a search team when contact was lost with the two units headed for the dragon node.

They were told to observe from afar and relay reconnaissance only, since no one knew what was happening inside.

Then, the moment a black pillar shot up from Father Gabriele's position, Cardinal Rosinald realized things had gone terribly wrong.

"Do we need to prepare for the worst...?"

Cardinal Rosinald recalled the prophecy Yohan had received from Pastor Park.

The Three Kings.

One of them had been stopped by Yohan.

But through the Templar Order's failure, another king had crawled up from underground.

At that very moment, every living being on this land felt something strange.

An inexplicable unease, instinctive fear, malice with unfathomable depths.

Ordinary people could dismiss it as a vague discomfort, but not someone with spiritual abilities like Cardinal Rosinald.

The third king.

The Great King who would appear last, only after two kings had been summoned and the Malevolent Site completed.

And when it came to a Great King that clearly fit that description, only one came to mind.

Beelzebub, Baalzebub, Beelzebul, Baalsebul.

Those were fallen names.

Its true name was that of an ancient indigenous god of Canaan.

"Baal."

A fallen king.

A being that had once been a god.

A towering pillar that trampled nations. A majestic being.

A king of Hell second only to the great evil, Lucifer.

Three thousand years ago, after Great King Solomon sealed the 72 Demons in a brass jar, it took five hundred years for them to be freed.

That had been 2,500 years ago, in the fifth century BCE, after the kingdom of Israel fell and humans broke the seal on the brass jar along the coast of Neo-Babylonia.

The 72 Demons had appeared in the human world many times, plunging it into chaos and bringing disease, war, and the ruin of dynasties.

Yet Baal had never revealed itself.

The god of Canaan that demanded children as living sacrifices and promised rain and abundance.

The being Christianity had cast down from godhood into an evil king.

"I never thought it would try to appear in the world now."

It could never be allowed.

Its very existence was evil, something that shook the LORD's absoluteness.

It was a great demon that could no more be allowed to descend than Satan himself.

"The king currently summoned is Paimon. Brother Yohan stopped Beleth's descent, buying us a moment, but..."

A great demon of Paimon's caliber could easily turn a Holy Vein back into a Ghost Vein.

That meant the Malevolent Site crisis was not over.

"It must be exterminated."

Cardinal Rosinald picked up a satellite phone.

[Yes, Your Eminence.]

The call was to the headquarters of the Vatican Special Affairs Bureau, Vatican City's anti-monster extermination agency.

"Under my authority as director, deploy the Twenty-Second, Twenty-Seventh, and Thirty-First Dragons."

[Yes, but Your Eminence. When you are outside...]

"I know, I know. I need the consent of another Paladin in the organization. Contact him. He won't hesitate for even a moment."

[Yes. I will contact Sir Falkenstein immediately.]

It did not take long.

[Approved. Sir Sebastian Konrad Falkenstein has authorized the deployment of the three Dragons from the Eastern European branch.]

"He didn't even ask why?"

[Sir Falkenstein said that if Your Eminence judged it necessary, that was sufficient...]

"Phew..."

Fast work was good, but this was too fast.

Barely more than ten seconds.

That was far too little time to contact him, explain the reason, and relay his answer.

Still, in a situation like this, every second was precious.

"Begin preparing the Dragons for deployment. Make sure they can be launched immediately."

The Dragons that had been coiled away throughout Eastern Europe slowly revealed themselves.

* * *

The Dragons were coming down.

The Great Monster Annihilation Warhead, Dragon Spear.

A holy bunker buster created by the Catholic Church.

I had seen the force of a steel Dragon Spear, with its twenty-ton warhead falling at Mach 7, during the Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox's Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.

And they were sending several of them?

I didn't know exactly how bad it would be, but this whole area was about to get completely wrecked.

"There are people here! The mercenaries and Templar Order members are all here!"

[It can't be helped. We must do whatever it takes to stop a great demon's rampage.]

I didn't know the Cardinal was this hard-line.

It wasn't like I couldn't understand.

Even I knew that thing couldn't be allowed out into the world.

"How long do we have?!"

[...Ten minutes. Ten minutes until impact.]

"Okay."

[Brother Yohan? What are you thinking?]

"I'll try to kill it within ten minutes."

[Brother Yohan? What do you mean? Get out of there at once...]

Click!

After ending the call, I stared at Paimon from atop the moving Gari.

Could I do it?

No. I had to.

"Phew...!"

I opened the Gutenberg Bible and flipped through the pages in an instant.

The pages flying in every direction transformed into swords and rained down.

It looked like a martial arts master controlling a whole storm of swords, but Paimon didn't even flinch beneath the barrage.

Maybe it was too big. The swords looked more like toothpicks stuck in it.

"Then it's time to burn it."

If blades didn't work, I would use fire.

Using Auns's authority, I formed a whip of flame.

Auns, the flame demon ranked fifty-eighth.

Its authority was flame, and the easiest, most destructive way to shape that flame was into a whip.

Probably because of the legends about it wielding a flaming whip.

Crack!

With the whip's signature sonic boom, the flaming lash struck the enormous camel hoof.

With a sharp whoosh!, the whip coiled around the camel's leg, and fire began spreading from that point.

──!!

Paimon, which hadn't cared about the barrage of holy swords, stirred as if it had felt pain this time.

A massive camel hoof soon moved and dropped toward us, but Gari in Chariot Mode could easily handle something like...

Clunk!

"Huh?"

The chariot stopped.

The wheels had jammed. Demon corpses were caught in the flaming wheels, keeping them from turning.

Right. Charging blindly through this many demons wasn't going to be easy.

The camel hoof came down next.

It was large enough to crush Gari and me to death in one go.

Whoom!

My vision flickered, and the camel hoof struck the space we had occupied a moment before.

Boom!

The ground crumpled beneath the hoof along with the demons that had failed to escape.

The impact was horrifying.

If that stepped on me, I would be crushed into mush and die instantly.

"My loooord!!"

Something pounced on me from behind.

It was Kohaku.

"Kohaku?! Hey, you little punk!"

It wasn't just Kohaku.

Father Gabriel, the Templar Order members, and the mercenaries were all charging at me too.

Gari ran to avoid them, but I could barely keep up as Kohaku and I tumbled over each other.

"Ow! Hey! You just bit me, didn't you?!"

"Please submit obediently to the honored one! Acknowledge that honored one's authority and surrender!"

Her way of speaking had changed too.

Had my devoted vassal Kohaku been acting the whole time?

It was a bit of a shock, but I couldn't leave her like this.

She seemed to have been bewitched by the demon's authority, and I couldn't hurt her.

"Get off me for now!"

"Gyah!!"

I grabbed Kohaku and leaped outside the dungeon.

I threw her aside, returned to Gari, and recoiled at the sight of the Templar Order members chasing me like zombies.

I had to save those people and get them out of here, but that damned bewitchment was the problem.

I had to avoid people with the flaming whip too. If I paid attention to each one, I couldn't fight properly.

What should I do?

Take them away with Spatial Leap?

That seemed like the most realistic option, but how was I supposed to grab people trying to kill me and escape with them?

The power of flame could burn my allies too.

I couldn't use the authority to command beasts and birds right now, either.

That left...

"Beleth."

Its authority.

A fallen angel from the Book of Enoch.

Its stature was equal to Gari's true form.

It had an authority that breathed fire too, but its real power was something completely unexpected.

"Love? Is this bastard really a demon?"

One eye on Gari's ring twitched.

Incredibly, Beleth's authority was the power of love.

It was a demon's authority, so it couldn't be ordinary love.

The power to make one be loved. The power to make one love.

But there would be no purity in it. It would be love that led to the whims of fate and ruin.

I had no idea how it worked, but could it be a way to resist Paimon's bewitchment?

But how was I supposed to use this...?

Martim, the demon of space. Marchosias, the demon of beasts. Auns, the demon of flame. Decarabia, the demon of the dead.

Their traits were clear, and their powers were easy enough to understand.

But the authority of love?

I didn't even know where to begin.

"Gari!"

A dark shadow fell over my head.

A camel hoof had been about to stomp us into pulp, so I had used Spatial Leap to evade it...

"Huh?"

Another hoof was falling at the same time.

I had made a short leap to save spiritual power, and Paimon had anticipated it!

Crash!

It barely grazed us, but the shockwave alone sent Gari and me flying.

"Urk!"

Could a human body really be flung around this easily?

Just as I was about to slam into the ground, someone caught me.

【Po!】

"Thank God. Sis, you saved..."

Before I could even feel relieved, Mountain Lord leaped in and pounced on Eight-Foot Sister.

The two tangled together in a brawl.

I hurriedly turned my attention to Gari, but things were just as urgent there.

Snap! Smack! Crack!

Gari was lunging at Paimon, tearing off flesh and slamming into it.

Paimon swung its grotesquely twisted mass of flesh as if it were nothing and struck back.

Crash!

Gari was knocked away.

But Gari didn't give up and charged back in immediately.

This was dangerous.

Gari had always been an absolute powerhouse, but against a great demon like Paimon in physical form, Gari couldn't win without Gari's true form.

We were nowhere near able to declare a sanctuary, and more importantly...

"Aah!"

I barely dodged the axe swung by a Templar Order member.

I thought it was Sister Marian. Not a trace of her earlier gentle smile remained.

"Die!"

The other Templar Order members were the same.

Paimon's authority, its bewitchment, must have been strong enough that even clergy couldn't resist it.

While dodging their attacks, I tried to get outside the range of Gari and Paimon's fight.

But the demons swarmed me too.

Right. I was their easiest target.

I resisted with Spatial Leap and the flaming whip, but there were too many.

How much time was left?

Five minutes? Four?

Damn, I should've kept track.

Think this through.

I couldn't abandon everyone and run away alone.

The Dragons would soon come down and blow this whole place apart.

Even if I tried to take them out, they were bewitched and wouldn't listen.

Could the power of love possessed by the fellow demon king Beleth be a way through this?

The power of love?

It was a demon's authority, so it had to be something sinister.

Could I use it to save these people?

"Love your neighbor and pray for those being persecuted."

Matthew 5:43 and 44.

"There is nothing special about loving only those who love you."

Matthew 5:45 and 47.

"Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength."

Mark 12:29 and 30.

"Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you."

Luke 6:27.

What else?

What else had to do with love?

What could I use to get through this?

"Anything is fine, so use something! Love! Love! Ah, come on! Let's love one another!"

Dodging attacks alone was exhausting.

It was impossible to grab people one by one and escape using Spatial Leap.

Spatial Leap.

Contact.

Dodge.

Dodge.

Dodge?

"Ah, screw it."

I stopped.

The moment I did, Sister Marian's axe chopped straight into my shoulder.

Crunch!

"Urgh..."

It hurt.

But it didn't cut through.

That was thanks to my high-performance coat and underwear stuffed with Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox tail fur.

Still, they couldn't absorb all the impact. The shoulder struck by the axe was wrecked.

"...!"

I held Sister Marian tightly.

She was startled, but another attack followed.

This time, it was a sword stabbing into my back.

It was one of the mercenaries, wielding what looked like a combat knife.

I planted my foot on the heel of the mercenary's combat boot.

The third attack was dangerous.

A longsword came for my throat. I dodged it, but it grazed me by a hair.

I grabbed that person's arm.

The fourth, then the fifth.

By then, I had used both hands and feet to make contact with all of them.

The next moment.

Whoom!

I leaped outside the dungeon, threw the five of them aside, and came back.

"Aaaah!"

Stab!

"Urk."

That fucking hurt.

Even with the coat on, this was a little...

Stab!

Whack!

I leaped through space again.

Nine people total?

How many were left?

I didn't know. There looked to be around fifty of them.

"No one has greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. Whoever does this is my friend."

John 15:13.

Words Jesus had spoken to His disciples.

Great love.

Love truly practiced by putting one's life on the line.

"Fine. Let's do it."

Three minutes until the missiles fell.

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